Come Back
by bibliophibian6
Summary: My version of Last Sacrifice
1. The Cell

Okay, This is my first story that I have actually put into writing so PEASE PLEASE PLEASE (I know It's annoying and you don't really feel like doing it) But Please comment. I'm sorry if it's moving a bit slow, I know that's one of the things I need to work on in my writing but it will get better later, I promise.

Disclaimer: I do not own anything that Richelle Mead owns.

Come Back

Chapter One, The Cell

"Rose?" Lisa's tentative voice came from the front of the cell. I could see her in the dim light radiating from the hallway but from where I sat, huddled on the far end of the small cot in the shadows, the most she would have been able to see of me would be my outline. "Rose, It's me, Lisa. Will you please talk to me?" I could feel her pity and sense of helplessness through the bond as she craned her neck to try to see me. "Rose, please." A tear fell down her cheek and she swallowed a strangled sob. "I miss you, please talk to me." She sniffled and bit her lip. I felt horrible for hurting her, but I was too covered in self pity and hate to act on my feelings. It was better that she didn't see me anyways. Better for her to remember me fighting and proud than curled up in a locked cell. If I stayed quiet enough, maybe she would think that I was in a completely different cell and leave. "Rose, I know you're in there, you're just being stubborn." So much for that. "And I'm not leaving until you talk to me." Her bottom lip trembled as she turned her back to the cell, and slid, leaning against the cell bars, to a sitting position. She inhaled a brave breath and started talking again. "It's total chaos out there, rose. They have to vote on a new monarch, but with all of the debate still concerning the age limit for Dhampirs and letting Moroi fight, no one candidate will do. There are tons of arguments and debates." My curiosity won over. "Are you running?" I asked. Lisa seemed startled at first, turning around sharply to stare into the shadowy depths of the cell, but my speaking hadn't improved her vision. She huffed a pouty breath and turned back around to lean against the bars. "Wouldn't you know?" I knew exactly what she was talking about. I figured that she would assume that I'd be spying on her, but she was wrong. "No." I said tonelessly. Lisa kept quiet, waiting for an explanation, but when none came she continued. "I'm not running. I don't want to be queen. I want to got to college and have a normal life. I though you would have known that." She said dejectedly. "I did." I had assumed that Lisa hadn't wanted a life as a queen, but maybe she had found out something about it that made her change her mind. " Tasha's running." That got my interest. " Really? How's she doing?" I asked, my self pity forgotten. " Like I said, There's so much debate and so many subjects of argument that there aren't a lot of people who agree completely with any one of the candidates, but she is doing pretty well. A lot of people are actually starting to consider getting rid of the new age limit for Dhampirs and letting the moroi who want to fight fight. The next words that came out of my mouth were hesitant. I wanted to know, but didn't at the same time. "Has Dimitri come back?" Lisa was silent for a few moments. "No." Dimitri had left right after my first trial. No one knew where or why he went. He had slipped out among the chaos of my capture. Crowds of people had swarmed the authorities and judges, some claiming to have evidence confirming my innocence and some demanding that I be put to death immediately. " Rose, I'm sure he'll be back. He wouldn't just leave you here." Lisa said reasonably. "He's probably off doing something to help your cause." A small burst of hope came at her last sentence, but it disappeared just as quickly. Dimitri had left me. Ever since he came back, a war had started waging in my heart. His claims that his love had fated and his avoidance of me battling against his protectiveness for me when the guardians had come to take me away. Because of recent events leading me to believe that I would be dead within the week, my pessimism had won over. Dimitri didn't love me anymore and he wasn't coming back. He had left simply because he didn't have any reason to stay. "Rose, I'm sure he-" "Visitation hours are up, Princess Dragomir." A guardian had appeared at the end of the long hallway. "Bye Rose, I'll be back tomorrow." She reached her arm as far as it could go through the bars. "Everything will be okay." I seriously doubted that, but he intensions were good. My heart had softened a bit from the talk about Dimitri, and enough reason had come forward for me to realize that Lisa was still my best friend. I swallowed my pride, turned around and squeezed her hand. "Right, everything will be okay." Better for her to have hope at least. I watched her until the thick steel door swung closed after her, cutting off my vision, then I curled up on the bed as sleep began to enfold me. Dimitri's face swam in my thoughts and dreams.


	2. The Trial

Chapter two

The Trial

"Hey" I groggily shouted at the guardian I had caught passing my cell as I slowly woke up. "What time is my trial?" I hope that never has to be your first thought upon waking, when your trial for murder of the queen of your people is, but unfortunately it was mine.

"Noon," he responded and hurried off. I had picked up that the guardians posted to guard the cell were getting tired of guarding the role models of their kind. First Dimitri, then me. I ran my fingers through my hair as I tried to comprehend that while still half asleep. I checked the clock. 10:00. Thankfully I had slept in. That left less time to think about my awaiting doom.

The trial was all a blur when it came. I was allowed to take a short shower and put on some clean cloths, then hustled out to the courtroom. The trial was full of arguments that my Dad tried to rationalize, but most of the time he couldn't. The evidence was just too much against me. It ended with the grim sound of a gavel hitting the table as the judge said "Rose Hathaway, The court finds you guilty of Murder of Queen Tatiana and has sentenced you to death. Your execution will be held this evening at 8:00."

The realization hit me only when Lisa looked at me with tears in her eyes. I knew she felt bad for me, but the only thought I could think of was what this would do to Lisa. It would hurt her a lot. To lose her best friend, her guardian, the person she was shadowbound to. The person she was shadowbound to... The realization hit me all at once. I should have realized this before! "Wait!" I yelled at the top of my lungs. The chatter in the courtroom stopped and all eyed fixed on me, some sympathetic, some filled with hate. "Wait I'm shadowbound to Princess Dragomir. This didn't occur to me before, but I dont know the effects my death might have on her. The loosing of the person she's shadowbound to might hurt her."

The room was silent as the judge considered. Finally she sighed sadly and told me "I'm sorry, I've already declared it. We can't change my ruling. We might have been able to if we knew more about shadow... kissed people and what would happen to the spirit users if they died, but as it is uncertain, we cannot stop the punishment because of this."

My heart sank. Not for me, but for Lisa. What would happen to her? How would she avoid going crazy without me? This thought was all that occupied my mind as they led me back to the jail cell and locked me up. What would happen to Lisa?


	3. The Execution

My mind was tied in knots as they led me out of the cell. Hw could I save Lisa? How could the judge kill me when there was even a miniscule chance that it would hurt Lisa? Why couldn't they just keep me locked up for the rest instead of killing me. Then I would be adequately punished, lisa wouldn't go crazy, and when they finally found the real culprit, I wouldn't be dead. This led me back to my hysterics about them killing me when I didn't even do it! I had finally realized that moping would do me no good and had spent the time between the trial and now banging on the bars to my cell and screaming at the guards about how I didn't do it and how they were traitors to keep me locked up when I was one of the top role models of their kind. They didn't show any emotion. A bitter thought of Dimitri also flashed through my mind. He had abandoned me so I now hated him.

My mind was dragged back to the present as we approached the crowd of people ahead. I threw back my shoulders and kept my head high as the two guardians escorting me pulled me to the small clearing in the center. The judge was standing there along with a man dressed all in black with a mask hiding his identity. How medieval. In the place of his traditional axe, he was holing a simple stake. It was the vampire way to execute traitors by staking them, the same way they executed strigoi. I death glared at the judge as she read off my offenses.

"I now sentence you to death by being staked in the same manor that we kill our enemies." the judge ended. She stepped backwards into the crowd as the executioner came forward.

"I hope your guilt drives you to suicide when you figure out it wasn't me," I said, typical Rose style. The judge just narrowed her eyes at me.

My anger grew as the executioner proceeded forward. I tried pulling against the dhampirs holding me, but it was no good. Two more had come to hold me steady and I couldn't move.

My desperation grew as the executioner lined up the stake with my heart and pulled his arm back. I was going to die, lisa was going to go crazy, and Dimitri was going to get away with abandoning me and there was nothing I could do to stop it.

I bravely kept my eyes open and head held high as the stake came towards my heart. I gave one last push against my captors, but my struggle faded as I saw a 6' 7'' figure hurl himself into the executioner, yelling something, but his attempt to stop him was futile. He was too late. The executioner, as he fell, drove the stake into my chest.


	4. Dimitri

Chapter 4, Dimitri

I was too stunned to scream. I felt the worst pain I had ever felt in my life rip through my chest, but I was too surprised to see Dimitri there. My mind ran with a hundred different thoughts. Why was Dimitri there? Did he come back for me? Why did he think that even if he stopped the executioner from stabbing me, he could stop them from killing me? Was Lisa going to be okay now? Would Dimitri take care of Lisa? Wasn't a stake supposed to kill instantly? Why wasn't I dead?

Then Dimitri was there, his face hovering over mine. "Rose, Roza!" He was shouting at me, a look of concern on his face. "Roza, don't close your eyes, don't go to sleep!" I noted his idiocy at suggesting that I could sleep when a semi had just run over my chest, but slowly, the pain started numbing and I realized the wisdom in his warning. I wanted so much to close my eyes.

"Guardian Belikov!"The judge screeched. "That girl is sentenced to death for murdering Queen Tatianna! How dare you interfere!"

"Rose is innocent! I have proof!" My curiosity to see what Dimitri's proof was helped me fight off my grogginess.

"But first Rose needs medical attention. The stake didn't go into her heart, it went in right beside it, but she'll bleed to death if it isn't attended to immediately!"

"What is your proof, Guardian Belikov?" The judge persisted.

"I have Victor Dashkov with me." Dimitri told me. He had apparently come to the conclusion that if anyone was going to get me to stop bleeding, it would have to be him, because he pulled out the stake, then shrugged off his duster, covered the wound in my chest with it and pressed down. I suppose no guards came to haul him off of me because they were both curious about what Dimitri had to say and they were never exactly excited to kill one of the top role models for female dhampirs. The fact that he was a 6' 7'' killing god probably didn't hurt either.

"What does Victor Dashkov have to do with this?" The judge questioned.

"He killed The Queen! I can explain this later, just please get a nurse over here!"

The judge held out a hand, stopping the medically educated people who had made their way through the crowd from coming forward. "Victor Dashkov killed the Queen?" Obviously the judge had decided to let me bleed to death, then determine if I was innocent or not.

I was surprised that I could even think with the immense pain that was slowly spreading through my body.

"Victor killed the queen and made it looked like rose did it so that you would kill her and then Lisa would go crazy and be easier for him to control!" Dimitri snarled. "Rose needs medical attention NOW or he's going to succeed!"

What? Dimitri's explanation sank in and soon even the pain was blocked out by the realization that I needed to live to save Lisa. I tried to steady my breathing and keep my vision from going blurry, but it wasn't working. A black haze was slowly blocking out all vision. If I lost consciousness how could I keep myself from dying?

The judge looked down at us with cold, hard eyes. "Your word is still not enough proof, Guardian Belikov."

I reached up and dug my fingernails into Dimitri's arm as a burst of pain tore through my body. My vision was becoming blurrier by the second and I was barely able to see the desperation in Dimitri's eyes as he calmly told the judge. Victor Dashkov is tied up to the entrance gates. It won't be long until he's able to untie himself and escape." As the crowd broke out in chaos, Dimitri lifted me in his arms, shouted for one of the nurses in the crowd to follow him and ran toward the hospital.

"Rose, hold on, don't close your eyes, Rose!" he shouted at me. I tried, i really did, but despite my efforts, as Dimitiri broke through the hospital doors, my world went black.


End file.
